Advanced Live Chat Feature: Custom Fields

Author: Cecilia - Comm100

Create Time: 05/12/2011 02:45:23

Last Update Time: 30/03/2013 00:43:02

Sometimes, it’s inevitable that your Live Chat operators will miss a chat or chat opportunity. Scheduling, busy peaks, or unexpected service interruptions can mean that Live Chat requests come in when nobody is there to address them. However, a missed chat doesn’t have to be a missed opportunity. Likewise, even when chat is available, having valuable customer information before the operator begins the chat can lead to more effective and successful chat sessions. Comm100 Advanced Custom Fields Live Chat Feature allows you to collect necessary or additional customer information in the pre-chat or offline chat windows to create more successful Live Chat campaigns.

How it Works

Once you’ve signed-up for and enabled Comm100 Advanced Custom Fields Live Chat Feature, you’ll have the option to turn on or off custom fields as needed in the pre-chat or offline chat window in any or all of your website integrations. Just go to your integrations section and either crate a new website integration or edit your existing website integrations. You’ll see the custom fields options available in the pre-chat and offline message options.

Enable Custom Fields

In each case, you’ll have a pre-available listing of common customer information fields to use, including customer name, customer email, product, or department. You can edit and change those fields or create an entirely new field for your specific business needs. You can also control the order in which the fields appear, the text that appears to request that users fill out the information, and whether a field is required or optional.

Customize the Pre-Chat Window to Empower Chat Operators​

Customizing the fields that a user can fill out in the pre-chat window can give Live Chat operators valuable information to make chats more successful. By having users enter their name, chat operators can immediately personalize the chat for better conversion success. Having users enter a phone number or email before a chat begins means that you will have captured contact information for follow-up if a technical difficulty occurs with the chat. However, based on your unique business needs, you can also create your own custom fields that help chat operators to identify the key conversion points for a chat session.

For example, if you know that your company offers different promotions on different advertising campaigns, you can add a field asking the customer or user what promotion they are asking about. This means that your Live Chat operator can already be pulling up the details of the promotion before the chat is fully initiated. This will cut down on the amount of wait time that a customer will have to experience on chat while waiting for the answer to his or her question.

Additionally, you may want to ask a customer to provide an account or order number before the chat initiates. This will allow your Live Chat operator to pull up the account record or purchase record before the chat begins and identify any problems that the customer may be requesting a chat to discuss. A more prepared chat operator will always be a more successful chat operator.

Customize the Offline Message Window for Effective Follow-Up​

No matter how well staffed you are, sometimes a chat simply can’t be answered at the time that it’s requested. However, ensuring that you’ve captured proper follow-up information that assures your customer that you will get back to them quickly and with their issue already promptly being addressed can leave a customer less frustrated that he or she couldn’t be immediately served. Comm100 Advanced Custom Fields Live Chat Feature allows you to select the fields that you want to capture in the Offline Chat window.

Of course, the most obvious fields will be the customers name, order or account number, and contact information. But you can also collect unique and specific information in the Offline Chat window that will allow you to better serve your customers.

For example, you can query if the request is urgent, which will allow you to prioritize follow-ups more effectively.

You can also ask customers what the best method for returning their contact is, email or phone, so that you can follow-up with them in the manner in which they prefer. You can also ask them what the best time to contact them is.

More Information is Always Better Information ​

In the world of customer communications, more information is always better information. Comm100 Advanced Custom Fields Live Chat Feature allows you to collect the information that you need in a user-friendly way to optimize your Live Chat program.

If you're interested in this feature, welcome to UPGRADE to our Live Chat Enterprise version.

​All Comm100 brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of Comm100 Network Corporation in Canada and other countries.​All other trademarks or registered trademarks are property of their respective owners.